a. Field of the Invention
The present invention comprises an apparatus for placement on a roadway to generate power from the weight of passing vehicular traffic.
b. Background Art
Ever increasing demand for electric power requires that new sources of energy be located and utilized. One untapped resource exists in the form of potential energy stored by the millions of vehicles which travel the world's highways every day. Each moving vehicle has a weight which generally ranges from 2,000 pounds for a small passenger car to 80,000 pounds for a large tractor-trailer truck. If even a small percentage of the energy represented by this vast amount of moving weight could be harnessed and converted to useable form, then the resulting power output would be tremendous.
Prior attempts to harness the potential energy of moving vehicular traffic include Roche, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,212,598, which discloses placing a plurality of pneumatic cylinders or air bladders under respective pivoting actuating panels in a roadway or sidewalk. As vehicle or foot traffic passes over the actuating panels, air is forced out of the cylinders or bladders and circulated to a turbine which is rotated by the flow of air. The turbine is connected to a generator which produces electricity.
McGee, U.S. Pat. No. 4,614,875, discloses placing a plurality of small rotor and stator type electric generators under a roadway. Each generator is connected to a vertical spindle which is depressed when a vehicle passes thereover. The spindle has screw threads which rotate the rotor of the generator when the spindle is depressed, thereby generating electricity.
Galich, U.S. Pat. No. 6,172,426, discloses an energy producing platform having a fluid filled bladder positioned therebeneath such that the fluid is compressed by vehicles passing over the platform and forced out of the bladder. The fluid flowing from the bladder is circulated to an accumulator which releases the fluid when a preset pressure is reached. When released from the accumulator, the fluid flows to a generator where the flow is used to produce electricity. In an alternative embodiment of the invention, a moveably mounted platform has a lever arm connected to it such that downward movement of the platform caused by a vehicle passing thereover causes the lever arm to pivot. A hydraulic cylinder is connected to an outboard end of the lever arm such that fluid is forced from the cylinder upon actuation of the lever arm. Again, the fluid is channeled through an accumulator to a generator to produce electricity.